


Footsteps

by bexacaust



Series: Closure [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 05:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4467926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bexacaust/pseuds/bexacaust





	Footsteps

_I tried carrying the weight of the **w o r l d…**  
But I only have two  **h a n d s.**_

You found her, sitting tired and worn too low to be young anymore. Creases on her brow, lines in her face.

“If you’re here to off me, you’re a little too late.”, she sighed to the hazy air. Her legs were crossed, and she hunched over her dragon-headed cane as i lay over her lap, “I’m tired, so try not to give me any trouble, would you?”

Did you ever sound that young? If you did you didn’t remember. You tilted your head, pulling off your glasses as you studied her like any defendant.

Her knobbed spine, the hint of patterned splotches on the skin. Long expressive ears, glinting in studded jewelry. Your own gloved hand went to your own features, as you stared at this breathing mirror.

You felt fear in your stomach begin to fade as your descendant got to their feet, and turned to face you.

You gasped.

“What, never seen a blind girl before?”

The cane was in the girl’s hands, stance defensive.

“…Not fully blind, no.”, you replied.

The girl froze.

“My sight faded slowly, letting me adjust.”, you said calmly, “Judging by the shade of the sclera and lack of a pupil outline… yours was quite sudden.”

“It was a burn.”, said the girl softly, “It was light that stole my eyes.”

You felt your heart clench, “….It was light that stole mine too, in a way.”

You stepped closer.

“You’re her, aren’t you.”, she said quietly, “You’re the Neophyte; you’re Redglare.”

“Yes, yes I am.”

She blinked unseeing eyes at you, “…You didn’t nod.”

“Of course I didn’t.”, you said, cackling softly, “Little one, you’re blind. How would you have known what I was saying- oh, don’t, don’t cry-”

Terezi’s chest jumped with hitched breaths, and an arm went over her eyes, “N-No one remembers. No one. No one remembers until they want a laugh, or a joke. No one knows anything, no matter how many times I tell them, or show them… at the end of the day…”

She looks up to you, grown but bent from the weight of the world, “At the end of the day, no one cares.”

Your face softened, and you pulled your gloves off, and tucked them in your belt. Your own sight was dim by now, but you reached for her hand and placed it against your cheek, letting her shyly feel your expression. Once more her hand returned to your cheek, and she felt you smile.

“I will remember. As you remembered me.”

She looks at you with the kind of fear one has when meeting a god.

“Even when decisions were hard, when the scales were uncalibrated and the chains long snapped, you weighed each choice as only the Moral and Right can do.”

Terezi bit her own lip, nictating eyelids flickering over her eyes in nerves.

“And you have done so well.”

“I….”

You tilted your head.

“But… But I was  **wrong**.”

“And then you made it  **right**. As is a legislacerator’s  ** _duty_**.”

She looked at you then, and your smile grew wider and you covered her hand with your own. Her face scrunched up, and she hung her head, and cried as her shoulders relaxed and lost their tension.

She rasped a reedy thank you and you pulled her into a hug; her hand fell from your face to go over your shoulders and your own arms went around her middle and you squeezed, tight as Pyralspite’s tail in a playful mood.

When Terezi relaxed, and stepped away, you took her hands in your own.

“There’s someone who wants to meet you.”

She blinked, and you moved so that her hand was upon your forearm. Her cane tapped through the haze over the ground, rippling the aethergray that surrounded you both…

And she froze.

“S-Salted C-caramel.”, she whimpered, and you let her go forth alone, following once there was a comfortable distance of a foot or two.

“That’s what the shell smelled like, tasted like…”, said Terezi, her eyes widening before drifting closed, “Salted Caramel and Warmth.”

The sound of shifting scales, and once again tears poured from closed eyes as a dragon’s head leaned through the haze, and nudged her gently with its nose.

_‘Hello, small one; hello my sunbeam. I am so proud of you, Terezi; so very **proud**  of you.’_

Terezi’s cane dropped with a sound like a gavel as it hit the ground, and she threw her arms around the muzzle of the great dragon.

“I-I T-TRIED I TRIED SO HARD MOM I’M S-SORRY!”, she wailed, “I JUST WANTED TO SAVE YOU!”

_‘Hush my tiny one, my autumn breeze.’_ , murmured the dragon with its quiet voice, echoing in Terezi’s heart and very soul, _‘You have done all you could, you did what you must regardless of the **dangers**   **untold**  and the  **hardships**   **unnumbered** … and thus, you have found your way back home, to  **me**.’_

“But how?”

_‘A dragon is a wise creature, well-versed in rules beyond knowing… and as such, are masters of the **Art of Loopholes**.’_

You smiled as Terezi looked at you, a childish joy on her face. You and the dragon share a glance.

“Terezi, would you like to fly with us?”

The girl’s face nearly glowed.

With a laugh, you darted forward, a hand to her arm; the pair of you circled the wide body of the white dragon…

And in minutes, with Terezi’s back to your chest and your matched peals of laughter, you soared above the clouds like a dream; and as always….

Wingbeats carried you **home**.


End file.
